Driver/Sales Workers in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,985
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$4,865
13.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,886
Texas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Texas — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$35,850
Kept after tax
$30,985
Worth in national money
$31,886
State rank
34
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Texas is 34 of 51 states for driver/sales workers, with a middle wage of $35,850. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Within Texas this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, driver/sales workers ranks 438. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $35,850 the take-home is $30,985, which is worth about $31,886 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $37,820, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Texas ranks 34 of 51 for driver/sales workers at $35,850. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Against every occupation Texas reports, driver/sales workers ranks 438 of 493, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Texas's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for driver/sales workers on its $35,850 median: $30,985 retained after tax becomes $31,886 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $37,820 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Driver/Sales Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $18,290 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,850 |
| Top tenth earn over | $60,020 |
| This salary | $35,850 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Texas | $30,985 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $30,985 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,935 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $35,850 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,491 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Texas earn less than $35,850. The published range is $18,290 up to $60,020, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Texas's $30,985, worked from $35,850. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 438 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Texas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $31,886, the adjusted value of that $35,850 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 438 of 493 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for driver/sales workers in Texas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $18,290 to $60,020. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Texas take-home of $30,985, on $35,850 for work ranking 438 of 493 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 438 of 493 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Texas, so $31,886 — the adjusted value of that $35,850 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 438 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $37,820 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $18,290 at the bottom tenth to $60,020 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Texas sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $31,886 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $30,985 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Texas is $37,820. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($18,290) and the ninetieth ($60,020) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Texas's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $31,886 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Texas levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $30,985 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.